The DTU Gold Medal

The DTU Gold Medal is presented as an honorary award to people who have made a particularly notable effort for DTU and the work of the University. DTU awarded the first Gold Medal in 1997.

2016

Hans Peter Jensen

former President of DTU

Hans Peter Jensen was president from 1986 – 2001 and was the instigator behind major projects and processes aimed at modernizing the University and its activities.

During these years, DTU’s management helped develop the special DTU Act which was adopted by the Danish parliament at the end of 2000. The Act established the basis which has been a precondition for DTU's continued modernization process, and it was the basis for the subsequent Danish University Act which came to include all Danish universities.

2014

Lars Pallesen

former President of DTU

Lars Pallesen was president of DTU from 2001–2011. It was a period that also served as a launch pad for DTU’s development into the University as we know it today.

When he took over the position of President in 2001, Lars Pallesen’s task was relatively clear and simple: ‘All’ he had to do was deal with all the dead wood and make the most of the magnificent research environments and the potential that clearly existed. He was tasked with increasing student enrolments, establishing a robust and financially well-founded university, and renovating the campus. Finally, he was to expand and develop the University within the framework laid down by the new DTU Act.

Lars Pallesen succeeded in all these aims to a rare degree.

2011

Professor Nam Pyo Suh, KAIST

For the first time ever, the DTU Gold Medal was presented to a non-Dane, Professor Nam Pyo Suh, who is President of KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology).

Professor Nam Pyo Suh has a long and impressive record of accomplishments in the field of engineering. Before his appointment as president of South Korea's leading technical university, he enjoyed a distinguished career in both research and education at, among other places, MIT in the USA. Furthermore, he has played a key role in providing advice on technical matters and issues to organizations such as the World Bank and the UN, as well as universities and companies all over the world.

His work in the fields of natural sciences, technical sciences, and leadership are also perfectly in line with DTU's mission to develop and create value using the technical and natural sciences to benefit society.

Professor Nam Pyo Suh was awarded the DTU Gold Medal for being a 'global leader, a global scientist, and a friend of DTU, as President Lars Pallesen put it

2009

Mogens Bundgaard-Nielsen

former Chairmann of the DTU Board of Govenors

Mogens Bundgaard-Nielsen is a model example of a polytechnician in the sense that was employed when DTU was founded, and to which Mogens Bundgaard-Nielsen himself has helped give fresh impetus. Someone who has used his engineering skills to apply his knowledge in various sectors, ranging from teaching and research at DTU and Texas A&M through a top management position in the central administration to management director of the Great Belt Fixed Link, one of Denmark's major infrastructure projects—well, probably the largest construction project in Danish history. All with the purpose of 'benefitting society.

Throughout the last more than 20 years, he has made his experience and competence available in many areas of society—including various committees and boards of directors—and has served as President of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences, for example, and has served for eight years as Chairman of the DTU Board of Governors—a period during which the University was finding its feet as an idenpendent and professionally mangaged university.

2007

Director Kaj Juul-Pedersen

Director Kaj Juul-Pedersen is a model example of an engineer who sees the potential of an emerging technology at the earliest stage and follows it through a wide range of activities, including research and development, marketing, management, and senior management in major companies.

Kaj Juul-Pedersen has also put his efforts into the work of the Confederation of Danish Industry, and DTU has always been able to draw on his expertise, partly as Chairman of DTU Fotonik—a major challenge that he took on when the centre was established—and today as Advisory Board member of DTU Fotonik and member of DTU's Board of Representatives. Furthermore, he has made extensive efforts as external examiner in the field of telecoms technology.

2005

Director Johan Schrøder

For many years, Johan Schrøder has been a shining example of an engineer with polytechnical expertise which he has successfully deployed in many areas of Danish society.

Johan Schrøder's merits range from early teaching and research at DTU to management of Radiometer, a research-intensive engineering workplace with major international activities. He has held board membership and chairmanship positions in several companies, commissions, and councils as well as in various non-governmental organizations
—not least as Chairman of the Confederation of Danish Industry.

Johan Schrøder's combined efforts in the field of polytechnics in Danish society are impressive.

2004

Professor Niels Jørgen Gimsing

Professor Niels Jørgen Gimsing, DTU Civil Engineering, is awarded the DTU Gold Medal for his unique work as a national and international expert in the construction of bridges. While still a student, he won first prize in the US Steel international bridge competition in 1959, and the winning bridge type was built in a number of places in the USA. Since then, through his numerous outreach activities, Niels Jørgen Gimsing has represented Danish bridge construction and DTU in the best possible manner.

Niels Jørgen Gimsing was employed as associate professor at the Engineering Academy of Denmark in 1962, becoming a professor in 1968, and in 1976 he became a professor in steel structures at DTU. He is an exceptionally skilled teacher, capable of communicating his material in an interesting and engaging way at a high academic level.
as prize winner in a number of competitions.

2001

Director Jens Rostrup-Nielsen

Jens Rostrup-Nielsen, director, BSc in Engineering, MSc in Engineering, Dr.techn., has played a major role in the public debate on research and education, in which context he has held a number of positions of trust. Jens Rostrup-Nielsen has thus served as both Chairman of the (former) Research Planning Council and as President of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences.
DTU wishes to honour Jens Rostrup-Nielsen for his great contribution to shaping DTU into what we are today: a business-oriented, self-governing university.
With the introduction of the 1993 Danish University Act, two external members joined DTU's Senate (konsistorium), the first two at DTU being Mogens Bundgaard-Nielsen and Jens Rostrup-Nielsen. Both contributed actively to relaunching the debate in the Senate, but especially Jens Rostrup-Nielsen, in his own special way, changed the Senate's focus from academic self- and detail-oriented discussions to strategic discussions and assessments of how DTU should act in response to both political and business-oriented dimensions.

1999

Director Erik B. Rasmussen

Quote from the acceptance speech for Director Erik B. Rasmussen.

"Director Erik B. Rasmussen was born in 1929 and can now look back on a professional career that spans 40 years. Erik B. Rasmussen holds an MSc in Engineering and for many years, he has been part of the management of the Danish business sector—through directorships, board duties, and his work in the Confederation of Danish Industry, the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences, and on the DTU Board of Governors.”

The motivation for awarding the DTU Gold Medal is his broad commitment to research and education at DTU for so many years, and to honour his contribution to establishing DTU Nanotech and the MMT programme—at a time when it was still unclear to most people why it was so important to offer engineers a management programme building on their technological know-how

1997

Director Curt Sander

Curt Sander, director, engineer, and industrial researcher has put a lot of effort and enthusiasm into the development of the areas microelectronics and micromechanics at DTU.

In connection with the establishment of the Microelectronics Centre, Curt Sander was a member of the initial working group and continued as Chairman of the Board during the most difficult development period with respect to both the physical establishment and finding staff.

Therefore, DTU wants to present Curt Sander with the first Gold Medal for extensive and credible work for DTU.

Technical University of Denmark

Founded in 1829 with the mission of creating value for the benefit of society, DTU is an international elite technical university where education, scientific advice, and innovation rest on a solid foundation of world-class research.

The University is at the academic and multidisciplinary forefront of the technical and the natural sciences—with new initiatives in a number of demanding engineering disciplines, including sustainable energy technology and life science.